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Discovery of LL-K8-22 : A Selective, Durable, and Small-Molecule Degrader of the CDK8-Cyclin C Complex.

Mingyu WangRongkun LinJiacheng LiYuying SuoJing GaoLiping LiuLiyuan ZhouYicheng NiZiqun YangJie ZhengJin LinHu ZhouCheng LuoHua Lin
Published in: Journal of medicinal chemistry (2023)
The CDK8-cyclin C complex is an important anti-tumor target, but unlike CDK8, cyclin C remains undruggable. Modulators regulating cyclin C activity directly are still under development. Here, a series of hydrophobic tagging-based degraders of the CDK8-cyclin C complex were designed, synthesized, and evaluated to identify the first dual degrader, LL-K8-22 , which induced selective and synchronous degradation of CDK8 and cyclin C. Proteomic and immunoblot studies exhibited that LL-K8-22 significantly degraded CDK8 without reducing CDK19 and did not degrade other cyclin proteins except cyclin C. Moreover, LL-K8-22 showed enhanced anti-proliferative effects over its parental molecule, BI-1347 , with potency increased by 5-fold in MDA-MB-468 cells. LL-K8-22 exhibited more pronounced effects on CDK8-cyclin C downstream signaling than BI-1347 , suppressing STAT1 phosphorylation more persistently. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that LL-K8-22 inhibited E2F- and MYC-driven carcinogenic transcriptional programs. Overall, LL-K8-22 is the first-in-class degrader of cyclin C and would be useful for studying the unknown functions of cyclin C.
Keyphrases
  • cell cycle
  • cell proliferation
  • cell cycle arrest
  • small molecule
  • pi k akt
  • cell death
  • single cell
  • transcription factor
  • high throughput
  • oxidative stress
  • signaling pathway
  • endothelial cells
  • protein protein
  • heat stress